The Japanese blossom season, known as Sakura, occurs each spring, typically from late March to early April, though timing varies by region.

As you can see from my photos, cherry trees burst into pale pink and white flowers, creating breathtaking landscapes across parks, riversides and temples.

People celebrate with hanami — picnics under the blossoms — enjoying food, drinks and seasonal festivities with friends and family.

The blossoms last only about one to two weeks, symbolising the fleeting nature of life.

Major viewing spots include Ueno Park in Tokyo, Maruyama Park in Kyoto and Hirosaki Castle in Aomori.

To honour the cherry blossom season, here’s a post about the use of English slang in Japanese to help make conversation.

The Effect of Studying English in Japan

In Japan, many people study English intensively for six years, primarily to pass university entrance exams, then hardly ever use all that acquired language.

Perhaps as a result, Japanese people often pepper their language with English words, which sometimes acquire new meanings. Unlike the habit of some pretentious English speakers of slipping Latin and French bon mots into their conversation — see what I did there? — this crosses all social boundaries, from the grandmother at the konbini (convenience store) to the sarariman (male office worker) suffering from pawahara (power harassment).

Here are a few of the types of English words used in Japanese

1 Shortened words, including brand names

These are all straightforward examples obtained by removing syllables to simplify the wording (the lack of consonant clusters in Japanese, such as ‘cks’, is one of the reasons it can be difficult for Japanese people to pronounce English words).

Pasukon (パソコン): personal computer
Konbini (コンビニ): convenience store
Depāto (デパート): department store
Masukomi (マスコミ): mass communications/mass media
Eakon (エアコン): air conditioner
Sekuhara (セクハラ): sexual harassment — there is a whole family of ‘hara’ words!
Makku (マック): McDonald’s
Sutaba (スタバ): Starbucks

2 Words where the English has been significantly changed in meaning

These words can confuse English speakers living in Japan.

Donmai (ドンマイ): Originates from ‘Don’t mind’, but used to mean ‘Never mind’/’Don’t worry about it’. Often said by teammates when someone misses a penalty, etc.
Mai- (マイ-): A prefix to mean one’s own. The Japanese equivalent of ‘National Insurance number’ is マイナンバー (My Number). I once got asked ‘Do you have my number?’ in the local ward office, and wondered for a second if I was being propositioned.
Tension (テンション): Energy/excitement. Someone who is ハイテンション (high tension) is excited and in high spirits, not tense or anxious.
Baikingu (バイキング): A breakfast buffet. From the word ‘Viking’.
Kanningu (カンニング): To cheat. From ‘cunning’.
Claim (クレーム): A complaint, not a legal claim or a boast.

3 Words where the Japanese gets creative

Occasionally, something really creative comes from Japanese English, or 和製英語 (wasei eigo). My favourites are:

Bākōdo (バーコード): A combover hairstyle to poorly cover baldness. From ‘barcode’.
Skinshippu (スキンシップ): From ‘skin’ and ‘ship’. Physical affection and bonding through touch, such as between a parent and baby.

4 Words taken from other languages

Like English, Japanese promiscuously plunders from other languages.

Examples include:

Arubaito (アルバイト): Work part time. From the German Arbeit.
Eizen (エイゼン): Crampons. From the German Eisen.
Debū (デビュー): From the French début. Greatly overused in Japan for even mundane firsts, such as 公園デビュ (kōen debut): the first time a parent takes their child to the local park.
Pan (パン): Bread. From the Portuguese pão.
Gomu (ゴム): Rubber. From the Dutch gom.

And Finally…

A lot of slang/loanwords are introduced by a superficial media that focuses on ephemera, meaning they have a high turnover. Some of them are almost incomprehensible.

For example, ゲリラ豪雨 (gerira gōu) means a sudden, destructive, localised downpour of rain, which relies on the audience being familiar with the English word ‘guerrilla’.

However, I have chosen widely adopted expressions that will hopefully be useful if you spend time in Japan.

All words and pictures by Talk Dialect Chief Sub Jack Alexander. He runs a proofreading service called Alexander Proofreading, which specialises in non-fiction copyediting and proofreading in Japan and worldwide.